What do you do if your social media reputation is in crisis?

If our social media reputation is in crisis, I spring into action to address the situation head-on. First and foremost, I prioritize transparency and open communication, acknowledging the issue and taking responsibility where necessary. I swiftly implement a crisis management plan, which may include issuing a public apology, providing accurate information, and actively engaging with our audience to address concerns and rebuild trust. Simultaneously, I monitor the situation closely, gathering feedback and adjusting our strategy as needed to mitigate further damage and demonstrate our commitment to rectifying the situation.

Take a moment, pause and assess the situation that is affecting your Brand's reputation. Try locating the root cause of the crisis. It can be due to the quality of the service, response from the support team, using words/mispronouncing that triggered the emotions of the human crowd in a negative way, may be to a specific community or religion or even the race. Listen to what your customers are talking publicly. Anticipate responses with the utmost honesty and transperancy. Try to gaze the situations in the social Media channels, news online/offline, reviews. Bookmark those reviews and consequences that are repetitive and recurring to address it publicly.

A social media firestorm can be scary, but stay calm! Here's the firefighter's approach: ✅Acknowledge the flames - Publicly address the issue, taking ownership if needed. People respect authenticity over deflection. ✅Target the blaze - Respond directly to comments, especially negative ones. Be empathetic, solution-oriented, and professional. ✅Flood with positivity - Drown out negativity with high-quality, engaging content that reflects your brand's values. Showcase your usual awesomeness! By acting quickly and transparently, you can extinguish the flames and rebuild trust with your audience. Remember, even crises can be opportunities to show your character.

As an ex-Meltwater employee I know that having a positive social media reputation is crucial for building trust and credibility with clients and candidates. In the event of a crisis, it's essential to take swift and decisive action to address the situation. I LOVE Meltwater, and absolutely believe that leveraging tools like Meltwater can provide real-time monitoring and insights into online conversations, avoiding a PR nightmare!

The first step is to work out how widespread the crisis is on social media, so yes, social listening is the right place to start. However, the worst thing you can do is start replying to posts that aren't even looking for a response, or aren't comments made on your own channels. Sometimes an internal crisis does NOT make a social media crisis. Don't create one yourself by responding and pushing engagement to the issue before anyone has noticed.

Discuss a purposeful response with your team. The message should be short enough for your audience to pay attention but long enough to address the concern. Acknowledge the issue and explain the next steps forward in a clear, neutral tone. The aim is to solve the issue and deescalate.

In such a situation of crisis management (yes, if your social media reputation is in jeopardy, it is a crisis!), the art of formulating a meaningful response holds as much weight as the act of engagement itself. It is crucial to carefully evaluate the audience's sentiments and reactions, to understand what went wrong and how the alignment with the brand narrative can be improved. Next, embracing accountability for any missteps with authenticity and humility, rather than resorting to excuses, is essential. And lastly, committing to improvement reinforces the integrity of the response!

In order to come up with the compelling response, follow the below. 1. Delete the reviews, comments or the posts that are recurring to maintain the dignity of the brand and to keep up the online reputation. 2. The sooner the better, before the situation turns festering, issue the sincerest apology followed by the clarity and the realistic practical solution. 3. Design the crisis communication plan and have it handy to address and react any urgent crisis in future. Include in your company's guidelines as well.

If the issue is genuinely causing a spike in digital contacts, that's when you start to formulate your FAQs and what tone you will be using to respond. Work quickly but don't panic. Get the exec on board. Get your approach approved. Increase the formality of your replies. Make sure your team are supported.

Respond to the message within 24 hours of its posting. Don't ignore it in the hopes the issue will go away. Acknowledging their concerns shows that the business takes issues seriously. It also builds a reputation of approachability and transparency to your audience, so look at these concerns as brand-building opportunities. How a business responds matters more than what issue was raised.

Never ignore thinking as and when time passes, the crisis fades away. Take them on chat , private chat or even on call. Your customers always remember you for how you treated them as a brand even after a decade, they will remember every word you spoke So be proactive and have an engaging conversation that will repair your customer's issues and keep it short and effective. Instead of operating yourself in the defensive mode but apologise them. At times the customer may not feel satisfied by the solution offered but they will remember how as a brand treated them.

Engaging directly is all well and good - when you aren't dealing with an actual crisis where there may be thousands of people wanting a reply. Resond directly where you can, but it's okay to respond to themes and not to everyone asking the same question.

Keep a regular check on the comments and feedbacks that is open for all. Any negative or dissatisfied reviews found, address it immediately and take a follow up. Keep your audience engaging through the postings or poll or by going LIVE. Keep them updated very well advance about sale, offers, discounts if you are planning to launch any sale event. Offer giveaways for a positive change.

Handling Social Media crisis and its reputation can be stressful, but the experience you gain out of it no less than practical and powerful real time lesson. Its during the crisis times, the whole team comes forward to solve the conflict discovering skills such as Team work, conflict management, patience, determination, problem solving capabilities, effective communication. So, once you made through storm, prepare the case study for the future reference.

I recently heard about a 'crisis' because a brand started replying to mentions (not direct tags) with a PR crafted response. Don't make mountains out of molehills. Prepare well in advance for the mountains.